Abortion
...ay legal and available to all women, rich or poor. A woman’s right to abortion on demand is founded in the constitution of the United States (14th Amendment, Constitution of the United States, from “Overview”) which gives her the right to make her own health care decisions and the right to make personal, financial and emotional decisions for herself. These rights are not specifically spelled out in the constitution but result from the Supreme Court’s rulings on specific cases. The landmark Supreme Court case of Roe vs. Wade decided January 22, l973,( 410 U.S. 113, 1973, from “Overview”) held that a state criminal law outlawing abortion, except when necessary to save a woman’s life, did not address the stage of pregnancy and other issues and, therefore, violated the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. The fourteenth amendment protects against state taking action to limit the right to privacy, including a woman’s qualified right to terminate her pregnancy. In the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman’s attending physician. In the stage after approximately the end of the first trimester, the state has an interest in the health of the mother. In this stage the state may ...